So how did our household evolve to the mindset of buying only raw ingredients and preparing all meals at home (we RARELY eat out)? Would you believe it was our dog?
In 2001, we decided to get a dog! We don’t take our obligations lightly so prior to our new pets arrival I was researching natural diets for dogs when I came across a fascinating article about “Why Dogs Bury their Bones”. This led me to Dr. Pottenger famous cat study. From him I learned that the only appropriate diet for a carnivore is a raw one comprised of species appropriate food. For a dog that means they should be eating animals! Or the equivalent; muscle meat, organs, bones, etc. I started feeding her chicken wings the day she came home. I had made my decision.
And what a liberating experience it was! I would not be beholden to THE BAG, and my new friend would not spend her life eating processed crap, day in day out, for the rest of her life! I don’t care how “good” a dog food claims it is, it is still processed in a factory and shipped to me in a bag, two things I was to developing a real aversion too!
Slowly, lo and behold, the realization came upon me that my husband and I, WE, did not need to be eating out of bag or a box either! Soon I was introduced to the teachings of Weston Price and the rest is history.
Thus began our journey to minimize the amount of processed foods in all forms! Especially final food products like chips, pastas, breads, canned beans and jams, soups, cereals, and frozen foods and juice. I could go on. The result of our desire to stop eating processed crap in a bag quickly evolved into a philosophy of eating based on whole foods in their natural state, as fresh as possible – no more frozen pizza for us!! Eventually I was inspired me to create this blog and develop my NOBARCODES challenge.
By the way, my husband, Jeff, is 100% onboard with this approach I am happy to relay! He used to eat all kinds of junk food and hit the deli at the grocery store for poppers and things like that. As a very ethical hunter and avid fisherman, our approach suits his “nature” very well.
As the years have passed we have realized that we have basically opted out of the mainstream food supply! We rarely even go into a big box grocery stores anymore and rarely eat out (who knows what they cook with!) . During the summer months when we have a weekly local farmers market we shop their almost exclusively. We get our milk from a local dairy. We get our meat either by hunting or purchasing it from local ranchers who raise pastured animals and whom we have come to know, or who are recommended by ranchers we know and trust. We grow what we can in our very short, very cold summers and preserve much of our harvest for the winter by drying and dehydrating using our home made dehydrator. We also freeze a lot of veggies for the winter and lay in potatoes and onions. Our very small local health food store carries some local produce in the fall and early winter so we buy that stuff after the market closes. Throughout the winter we shop at www.localfarmsfirst.com an online farmers market started by 2 intrepid locals desperate for farm fresh food during the winter. Basically all fruit, veggies, beans, oats, all meat, eggs, and dairy are all sources out locally.
We have learned to forego produce that does not grow around here - period. Like banana and citrus, kiwi fruit and pineapple. We eat and freeze fish we catch ourselves from a crystal clear river near our home.
What do we purchase at grocery stores? Only the few items that we require for recipes such as sugar for kombucha, herbs and spices we can’t get grow or get locally, a few condiments like Tabasco and fish sauce, coconut oil, olive oil, canned sardines and mackerel we order online for a winter source of fish, a few supplements and toilette paper! We order bulk wheat berries and wild rice through the local coop.
Tessa, our dog, is now 6.5 years old. The first 3 years she ate no processed food at all. We fed her an exclusively raw diet based on the “carcass model” (we fed her every part of the animal including bones, organs and muscle meat). Now we go back and forth from raw to bagged depending on our situation and the availability of raw animal parts. Usually 7-8 months out of the year we manage to keep feed her elk scrap that we get from other hunters and the game processing plant down the road. When we run out we feed her various bagged foods and kitchen scrap to get through till the next hunting season in the fall. Her health you might ask? Perfect, needless to say.
